8th Naval Construction Battalion
History (1942-1945)

After activation on May 23, 1942, the Eighth Battalion left Norfolk, Virginaia on June 19 for Seattle, then embarked for Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands on July 9. The Eighth worked on 78 separately listed projects in the Amaknak, Dutch Harbor vicinity and on projects on eight outposts extending from Cold Bay on the east to Adak on the west. On all the outpost jobs except one, the Eighth landed on undeveloped beachheads under extreme conditions where no shelter or housing existed. Major projects included South Amaknak housing submarine base construction, P.T. base facilities and Joint Command Post. After 13 months the Battalion returned to Seattle and then to Camp Parks in August 1943.

While at Camp Parks, the Eighth Battalion was substantially reconstituted with many of the original Eighth Battalion seabees departing for other assignments. New, often younger seabees arrived at Camp Parks and were assigned to the Eighth.

On its second tour, the Eighth left Port Hueneme for Pearl Harbor in June 1944. Upon arriving at Oahu, the unit established its camp at Iroquois Point and worked on 13 projects in the vicinity. In September 1944, the Eighth Battalion moved to a new camp at Red Hill.

The Eighth remained on Iwo Jima through the war's end. After a brief diversion to Japanese coastal waters, the Eighth Battalion was sent to Guam where it worked on several projects before returning home.

To view a more detailed history of the 8th Naval Construction Battalion (1,624 kb) click here
To view a map of the Aleutian Islands (194 kb) click here
The following picture was submitted by Doug Robinson, whose father, Robert Glen Robinson, served in the 8th Naval
Construction Battalion during both the Aleutian Islands and Iwo Jima deployments. This is a picture of
Company B in formation in the Aleutians (1.21 Mb) click here
To view a map of the North Pacific region around Iwo Jima (93 kb) click here
To view a picture of Iwo Jima (179 kb)click here